Present Tense : Wāhine Toi Aotearoa

To record the current landscape of women in design and give visibility to the unsung diversity of Aotearoa design, Designers Speak (Up) calls all designers, artists and educators from the Directory of Women Designers* to design a poster using the medium to explore and address any social, cultural, or political issue of their choice.

Present Tense : Wāhine Toi Aotearoa will present the posters in various forms, from printed to projected to published online over the course of the exhibition (and beyond). All posters will be collected into the Designers Speak (Up) poster archive. A day of conversation and making — kōrero/kai/mahi — will be part of the programme.

An accompanying publication will document the project, and include written contributions to offer contextual discussion around the collective and ongoing exhibition as it journeys around Aotearoa New Zealand through 2019. The project is an opportunity to give visibility to all women-identifying designers to be brave and speak up using the poster medium. It’s a space for myriad voices to be heard, supported and championed in the wholehearted, collective way that is the Designers Speak (Up) kaupapa.